The rainbow never sets

we had a good view of the many basilicas and onion-shaped domes within the Kremlin.

An Orthodox monastery, away from the city, would be celebrating 1000 years of Christianity in Russia the following year. It seemed a busy place where worshippers mingled with workers and the monks. We were also shown the stadium of the 1980 Olympic games. The Moscow University was an absolutely enormous building, many stories high. I had seen a replica of it, though on a much smaller scale, in Warsaw. We stopped at a popular spot where two bridal parties in their traditional western style dresses had their photos taken. But the purpose of our stop was not to see the bridal couples, but to enjoy the most beautiful view of the city.

We passed another church which was open for regular worship, not like many others which had been converted to museums. Some more famous buildings followed, giving us a really good overview of Moscow. We couldn't have picked a better tour for the short time we had available.

As we had some more time after the tour we set out to visit Ruth Adler, a friend of a friend of ours from Canberra. It took some searching, but eventually we found her flat. She had to share it with other tenants, which can't have been easy. She was very pleased to see us, though, and we had quite a long chat with her, sitting around a dining table in the kitchen. Living space seemed scarce in Moscow.

After a good lunch at our hotel we tried in vain to get a taxi to the Byeloruski station. Neither the Hotel could help us, nor were we able to hail one in the street. We just literally had to pick up our bags and walk to the Metro, which took us there very quickly.

We had no trouble finding the train for Warsaw. The notices were all written in Polish, and our cabin companion said that we were on a Polish train. He was a Polish business man from Warsaw, who couldn't speak any English, only a smattering of German. To my surprise, we were able to have quite a good conversation. He spoke slowly in Polish, and I answered in German. My Polish, which had been deeply buried in my subconsciousness, came slowly to the surface. This was a most extraordinary experience.

He had nothing positive to say about Russia. He sold electronic equipment to many countries in the East, but Russia seemed to be at the bottom of his likes. He was very polite and friendly, and when we were preparing to go to bed, he just disappeared, leaving us by ourselves. Dinner was excellent on the train, and we slept till about 5 the next morning. We had arrived at the Polish border. The Russian border control was again very thorough, but they left us and our luggage in peace.

I had some four rubles left, and I asked the officer where I could change it back to hard currency. The exchange rate was then 0.43 rubles per Australian dollar. He suggested that I keep them as souvenirs. I didn't like the idea. I should get more than $9 for it, so I asked him, was it not illegal for foreigners to own rubles? He shrugged his shoulders and sent me to an

446